One of the best things you can do to prepare your family for a disaster is to create a communications plan. The plan is designed to help you stay informed about one another’s whereabouts and know what to do. Everyone in your household needs to have copies (paper copies and on their phones) of the plan and of the contact information for key people.

Disasters can happen at any time, and you and your family members may be in different places: at school, at work, at the store, at a doctor visit. Your goals will be (a) for everyone to stay safe until you can reunite and (b) for everyone to know how to get back together again.

Keep connected

The first step in an emergency will be for everyone in your family to text the same out-of-state contact. Following a large-scale disaster, cellular communication systems can be damaged and/or overwhelmed by the masses of calls flooding them. But texts to places that are more than 100 miles away will often go through even after local calls and texts start failing. The out-of-state contact will text back and let everyone know the status and location of all family members.

Enable your phone tracking feature for family members—you might have enough bars to see where your people are. Another option is to use a satellite phone to message since these phones work even when cell phones don’t, but they are expensive.

Meet up

Because disasters vary, you can’t identify one place where everyone in your family should reunite. Whereas a wildfire might require evacuation, an earthquake might mean you have to stay put. In addition, you don’t know where everyone will be at any given time. So make sure to identify at least four meeting places: one in your neighborhood, one out of your neighborhood (maybe in a key gathering center downtown), one over the bridge, and one on the Seattle side.

Maintain a contact in Seattle and one elsewhere in Kitsap County as well in case you get stuck off the island during a disaster. These are people who will host you during the days or weeks of waiting for the Coast Guard to approve the resumption of boat traffic in Puget Sound.

If you have kids at school, the school will be responsible for keeping them safe for 48 hours after an emergency. If you can’t get to them within that time, the kids will then be transferred to the Child Reunification Center run by Bainbridge Prepares at the high school. They will stay there until you or someone can get to them. Make sure to add some neighbors and friends to your child’s pickup list—if you are off island, they can pick up your kids and keep them safe.

The same goes for older, dependent people and pets. Make sure someone will check in on them when there is a disaster if you are stuck off island for a while.

Stay informed

When a disaster happens, information is crucial. You will need to know whether officials are telling you to evacuate, for example, or how much damage has been done. Turn to three excellent sources of information:

· The first is Nixle, which will issue emergency alerts from the city of Bainbridge Island. Text 98110 to 888777 to sign up.

· The second is your nearest disaster hub. These hubs, staffed by Bainbridge Prepares volunteers, will be up and running within a day or so of the disaster. Go there to get daily news updates disseminated by the city. See the hub map at https:// bainbridgeprepares.org/hubs.

· The third is a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration weather radio. You can get a solar-powered one that can also be run on batteries.

One final consideration

Your communication devices serve no purpose if they run out of juice! Keep juiced-up chargers and solar chargers on hand.

Sarah Lane is the community outreach team lead for Bainbridge Prepares.